Alexander RAMSEY

(1815-1903)

Senate Years of Service:

1863-1875

Party:

Republican

RAMSEY, Alexander, a
Representative from Pennsylvania and a Senator from Minnesota; born
near Harrisburg, Pa., September 8, 1815; attended the common
schools and Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.; studied law; admitted
to the bar in 1839 and commenced practice in Harrisburg; secretary
to the electoral college of Pennsylvania in 1840; clerk of the
State house of representatives in 1841; elected from Pennsylvania
as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses (March
4, 1843-March 3, 1847); declined renomination in 1846; Territorial
Governor of Minnesota 1849-1853; mayor of St. Paul 1855;
unsuccessful candidate for election as governor of Minnesota in
1857; Governor of Minnesota 1860-1863; elected in 1863 as a
Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1869 and
served from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1875; chairman, Committee on
Post Office and Post Roads (Thirty-ninth through Forty-third
Congresses), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Thirty-ninth
Congress); appointed Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President
Rutherford Hayes 1879-1881; chairman of the Edmunds Commission,
dealing with the question of Mormonism and polygamy in Utah
1882-1886, when he resigned; president of the Minnesota Historical
Society 1849-1863, 1891-1903; delegate to the centennial
celebration of the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1887;
died in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minn., April 22, 1903; interment
in Oakland Cemetery.